The Bobcats clawed their way to a double-digit lead in the first five minutes, and while the Celtics climbed within two in the game’s final minute, they never regained the lead. Charlotte walked off the Garden floor with an 89-83 victory, snapped the C’s four-game winning streak and ended their short-lived tenure atop the Atlantic Division.

Jeff Green‘s 19 points led the Celtics (4-5), but he added just one rebound and zero assists to that line. Jordan Crawford (16 points), Gerald Wallace and Courtney Lee (10 apiece) also reached double figures on a night the C’s shot just 38 percent as a team. Kelly Olynyk grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Live by the Crawford: After submitting his finest performance in a Celtics uniform on Monday — a line of 16 points, 10 assists and zero turnovers against the Magic that brought the “better without Rondo” folks out of the woodwork — it took all of 64 seconds for Crawford to commit his first turnover against the Bobcats. The de facto point guard improved in the second half, as did the Celtics. He finished with six assists and two turnovers.

Digging a hole: Meanwhile, the Bobcats backcourt wreaked havoc early, jumping out to a 22-12 lead on 9-of-11 shooting in the first 7:21 and sucking the life out of an already quiet Garden crowd. Charlotte guards Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson either scored or assisted on seven of those nine buckets, feeding Al Jefferson for eight early points. As a result, Stevens yanked Crawford, Bradley and Brandon Bass in favor of Phil Pressey, Lee and Kris Humphries — who helped trim the deficit to six by the end of the first quarter.

Big Al: Add Jefferson to the list of talented bigs who carved up the C’s interior defense. He finished with 22 points and 11 boards. Likewise, the Celtics allowed double-digit offensive rebounds for the seventh time in nine games. Vitor Faverani and Kelly Olynyk helped keep the C’s from completely getting wiped off the boards.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Puncher’s chance: As has been the custom under Brad Stevens, the Celtics didn’t fold. Trailing by 16 midway through the second quarter, Green scored eight points during a 15-4 run that slashed Charlotte’s lead to five. Green came in shooting 4-of-5 from the right corner and 21-of-33 in the restricted area — his two most efficient locations — and did his damage from those spots in keeping the C’s within striking distance.

Vitor fever: For much of the game, Faverani was the lone Celtics player in the plus/minus black, and he was in double digits. One of few C’s interested in banging on the boards, he successfully got under the skin of just about everyone in Charlotte’s frontcourt while contributing seven points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.

Defending their life: While the offense struggled mightily, the Celtics kept themselves in the game on the defensive end, holding the Bobcats to 37 percent from the field. Bradley racked up five fouls chasing Walker, holding Charlotte’s point guard to three points (1-13 FG). The rest of the Bobcats shot 42 percent.

When word got out that Danny Ainge attended Tuesday night’s Champions Classic in Chicago — an event that featured the likely top three players in the 2014 NBA draft and four of college basketball’s best five teams — the Celtics president’s presence brought out the Riggin’ for Wiggins folks in full force.

While Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle didn’t disappoint, combining for 76 points (65 TS%) and 30 rebounds, the reality is those two games (Kansas 94, Duke 83; Michigan State 78, Kentucky 74) featured as many as 18 picks in June’s draft. Ainge would be a fool not to show up. Here are the stat lines he saw from those 18 players in order of performance — complete with each prospect’s mixtape and a link to his DraftExpress profile.

The Steez knees: Believe it or not, Crawford actually looked like a point guard. Submitting by far his best half of basketball in a Celtics uniform, he reached triple-double watch by halftime: 12 points (5-7 FG), six assists and four rebounds. More importantly, he entered the break with zero turnovers in 17 first-half minutes and owned the C’s best plus/minus number (+13) in staking them to a 59-50 advantage.

On the range: Bradley’s jumper from 15-19 feet has steadily improved since his rookie season, rising from to 26 percent in 2010-11 to 41 percent in his sophomore season and 44 percent last year. After knocking down his first three attempts from that range against the Magic — and finishing 7-of-9 on long 2’s — he’s started 13-of-24 (54 percent) from that range this season. Avery Bradley is officially a shooting guard.

Kelly O’Sully: By replacing Vitor Faverani in the starting lineup, Brad Stevens broke up the unselfishly entertaining Olynyk-Sullinger frontcourt combination that had helped produce 105.1 points per 100 possessions through the first seven games. And the two talented young bigs responded by providing consistent production throughout a thorough dismantling of the Magic, totaling 30 points on remarkable 14-of-18 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and three steals as Jelly Sullynyk.

It was quite a week for Brad Stevens. Seven days ago, his Celtics dropped to 0-4 and rose to the top of ESPN’s Tank Rank. Now, his C’s are riding a three-game win streak punctuated by a pair of plays in the span of 3.6 seconds against the two-time defending NBA champions that emphatically announced the coach’s arrival.

In the final moments of Saturday’s Heat upset, Stevens concocted a pair of post-timeout plays that offered the first NBA glimpse of the brilliance that everyone who knew him at Butler has raved about for the past four months.

The first: Since Shane Battier had previously fronted Gerald Wallace in the post, Stevens called for Jeff Green to lob an entry pass to Wallace under the basket for a layup that cut a four-point deficit in half with one second left.

And second: Weighing the risk of throwing crosscourt against the reward of potentially freeing up a shooter where LeBron James might sag defensively, Stevens called for Wallace to return the favor, lobbing an entry pass to Green in the far corner for a 3-pointer that beat the buzzer. Both seemingly made more brilliant by the fact Dwyane Wade made the youth basketball mistake of missing the rim entirely on a free throw attempt between them.

During his tenure in Boston, Doc Rivers was rightfully praised for his post-timeout play calls, but he also had Paul Pierce to help him look good despite so often calling the same isolation elbow jumper. Stevens doesn’t have that luxury and requires a bit more creativity in engineering scoring opportunities for a team without a playmaker.

In the aftermath of the two most remarkable play calls during Stevens’ brief NBA coaching career, now seems as good a time as any to examine the Celtics coach’s success in post-timeout situations.

The Kris Humphries Minutes Watch is one of the more interesting subplots of this Celtics season.

By sticking him on the end of the bench early this season, the C’s benefit twofold, accelerating the development of rookies Kelly Olynyk and Vitor Faverani while improving the team’s lottery chances.

On the flip side, the Celtics might also benefit from increasing Humphries’ playing time. He’s a 10-year NBA veteran who’s averaged a double-double per 36 minutes over his career, so there’s little doubt he gives Brad Stevens a better chance to stay afloat until Rajon Rondo returns than Faverani. Meanwhile, showcasing him might actually increase his expiring contract’s trade value in the coming months.

In other words, the Kris Humphries Minutes Watch might just be the best tanking barometer we have. And, unlike at least one of his Celtics teammates, Humphries doesn’t seem all that bothered by either situation.

‘I don’t look at it like that,’ he told the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett. ‘I look at it like I’ve got to prepare myself to help my team whatever way I can. I can’t read into all that stuff. If you’re a professional, you’ve got to do your job. That’s preparing yourself to play, whether you’re playing or not playing. We’re all trying to do that.’

The fact his name was on the tip of just about everybody’s tongue when the Knicks lost Tyson Chandler for 4-6 weeks is a good sign for his trade market. Considering each team’s financial situation, such a deal seems far from likely, since the Celtics would almost certainly have to absorb the $23.3 million left on Andrea Bargnani‘s contract through 2015 in return. Still, any number of contending teams might need frontcourt help by February.

It’s a good thing Humphries has enough Patron, wine and craft beer to get him through the season (see video).

Injured Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo made a huge impact on the Garden floor last night. He just did so prior to the game. Rondo and C’s co-owner Stephen Pagliuca surprised high school students Aylin Garcia Soto and Melvin Harrison with a couple $5,000 scholarships in coordination with Sun Life Financial, which also awarded a pair of $50,000 grants to Boston-based non-profit organizations Bottom Line and Brookview House.

As the Celtics watched film of Gordon Hayward prior to hosting the Jazz, Brad Stevens couldn’t contain his praise for the best player he ever coached at the collegiate level.

“You could kind of see,” said Celtics guard Phil Pressey as a knowing smile came to his face. “He talked about every single player, but as soon as he brought up Hayward, he kind of gave a couple more details about him.”

And Stevens’ first NBA win was no different from so many at Butler: Hayward was the best player on the floor.

“He’s a lot better than when I coached him, and man was he good when I coached him,” said Stevens after watching the Jazz guard drop 28 points, nine rebounds and five assists on his Celtics. “I thought he was the best player in college at the time, and man has he improved. I’m proud of him.

“I can’t tell you what that feels like, because I was there when he was a puppy ‘¦ and nobody was recruiting him. And it was like, ‘You think we should offer that guy a scholarship? Nobody’s looking at him. Nobody’s even in the building.’ It was probably a good decision, in retrospect. He’s awfully good.”